NEWS: New York State Milk Tampering Incident - Buffalo News 7/11/05

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Buffalo News 7/11/2005

 

Milk Tampering Probe Turns Out Inconclusive

 

By JOHN F. BONFATTI

News Staff Reporter

 

 

 

The series of crimes had put dairy farmers throughout Western New York

on edge. Now, at least one police investigator says he believes some

weren't crimes at all.

 

In 2002, the story was that, over a period of about year, milk on

roughly two dozen dairy farms deliberately had been contaminated with

antibiotics administered by unknown intruders.

 

In fact, at least in all but one of the Livingston County instances, the

contaminations probably resulted from farm practices, according to Maj.

Ray Ellis of that county's Sheriff's Department.

 

Investigators determined that the vast majority of the contaminations in

Livingston County involved "poor lab processing on the farm itself,"

Ellis said.

 

"I think the majority of our particular suspected milk tamperings were

farmer error," he said. "I also think that we did have at least one milk

tampering because it was actually an antibiotic injected into animals."

 

State police in Batavia, who coordinated the numerous federal and state

agencies involved in the investigation of the reported tamperings, said

they have closed their investigation without any arrests.

 

"We didn't find anything to substantiate that it was accidental or that

it was purposefully done," Trooper Art Pittman said.

 

Different investigators reached different conclusions, he said,

acknowledging that "it's been considered by some investigators that it's

strongly possible it could be faulty testing by the farmers."

 

State Police Investigator Henry Haas said he still believes most of the

incidents were acts of sabotage by farm intruders.

 

Haas, who has a background in dairy farming, said that while some "may

have been accidental, . . . most were criminal in nature." In one case,

he said, antibiotics showed up on an organic farm where they are not

administered to animals.

 

Other agencies involved with the investigations are tight-lipped.

 

The federal Food and Drug Administration said it would not provide any

information on the results of its investigation until it received a

request under the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Asked for an update on the tampering cases, Wyoming County Sheriff

Farris Heimann left a voice mail message reporting no new cases and no

arrests.

 

Heimann did not return two subsequent phone calls seeking specific

comment on the possibility that a number of the cases may have been the

result of farm practices.

 

Aside from deliberate sabotage, experts have cited several possible

explanations for the contaminations.

 

Most dairy farmers administer antibiotics to their cows to treat

ailments, most commonly mastitis, an udder inflammation.

 

Since traces of those antibiotics can show up in the milk of these cows,

they are isolated from the rest of the herd and their milk is discarded

until tests show no antibiotics.

 

The drug companies that sell the antibiotics give guidelines on how long

the antibiotic will remain in the animal's system, but Le Roy dairy

farmer Dale Stein noted the science is not exact.

 

"Even though the time is set for withholding the milk from the (treated)

cow, every cow milks out different," said Stein, president of the

Genesee County Farm Bureau.

 

"Some are far beyond the normal holding time, and we've found they're

still positive" for traces of the antibiotics in their system, he said.

 

Improper use of drugs to control mastitis is the major source of

antibiotic residues found in the milk supply, according to FDA surveys.

 

Farmers have testing equipment on the farm but, Ellis said, "some of

these farmers are not trained specifically on how to use" the devices.

 

Sometimes the farmer may conduct the tests correctly, but the tests

produce incorrect results.

 

Farmers have good reason to make sure contaminated milk doesn't leave

the farm.

 

Stein said farmers are fined the equivalent of two days' production if

their milk is determined at the processing plant to be contaminated.

 

In the case of his farm, which has 750 cows, that would amount to about

$12,000.

 

The fine doubles if contaminated milk shows up again in the next six

months.

 

"That's why farmers were worried when this was happening," he said. "The

fines alone could put you out of business."

 

 

e-mail: jbonfatti (AT) buffnews (DOT) com